Artist: Cui Jian (崔健 최건)
Song: 不是我不明白 (Bu shi wo bu mingbai) •Album: The New Long March [1989]

不是我不明白

过去我不知什么是宽阔胸怀
过去我不知世界有很多奇怪
过去我幻想的未来可不是现在
现在才似乎清楚什么是未来
噢……

过去的所作所为我分不清好坏
过去的光阴流逝我记不清年代
我曾经认为简单的事情现在全不明白
我忽然感到眼前的世界并非我所在
二十多年来我好象只学会了忍耐
难怪姑娘们总是说我不实实在在
我强打起精神，从睡梦中醒来
可醒来才知这个世界变化真叫快
噢……

放眼看那座座高楼如同那稻麦
看眼前是人的海洋和交通的堵塞
我左看右看前看后看还是看不过来
这个这个那个那个越看越奇怪
噢……

不是我不明白，这世界变化快
不是我不明白，这世界变化快

It’s not that I don’t understand

I never knew what it was to be magnanimous.
I never knew there was so much peculiarity in the world.
The future I’d envisioned is nothing like the present.
Only now does it seem I’m clear about what the future is.
Ohhhh….

I can’t tell if all the things I’ve done were good or bad.
Past times fade and I can’t recall the years.
The things I thought were simple I now can’t understand at all.
I suddenly feel the world in front of my eyes is not where I really am.

For more than twenty years it seems the only thing I’ve learned is endurance.
No wonder all the women say I’m not genuine.
I shake off the numbness and wake up from the dream.
But upon waking realize how quickly this world has changed.
Ohhhh….

In the distance rows of tall buildings like fields of wheat.
In front of me oceans of people and traffic jams.
I take it all in from every direction but still can’t grasp the size of it.
This thing and that thing – the more I see the stranger I feel.

It’s not that I don’t understand.
It’s just that the world is changing fast.

Submitted by AiHack